Evening Press reporter ZOE WALKER joins the disappointingly small crowd at York's first rave in years

THEY came, they saw, they blew their whistles at Sunday Secrets. But unless you were there it's unlikely that you even noticed.

The event at Ryedale Stadium, that merely days ago many feared would keep the infants of Huntington from their beds and clog up roads into and out of Monks Cross, passed without so much as a whiff of scandal.

It was anticipated that up to 900 "ravers" would attend the event.

In reality, somewhere between 250 and 300 remarkably well-behaved people from all age groups, backgrounds and social classes came together to, well, do just that - come together, to listen to some high energy music and dance until they just couldn't dance any more.

Security was watertight, bags and pockets were searched thoroughly and the seven-hour day started off slowly, with a poor showing of punters, too shy to hit the dance-floor, let alone trash flowerbeds and menace old ladies.

But things hotted up with the onset of dusk, as strobe lighting and fire-eaters added atmosphere to the cavernous marquee that served as a dance floor. Then, as if in some sort of parody of the 1990s rave scene, fluorescent tubes were brought out and twirled above heads without a hint of irony. Arms were waved in the air slightly self-consciously, the self-consciousness of the punters betraying the fact that Yorkies still aren't quite at ease with this sort of do ... yet.

But that's something promoter Phil Caine is hoping to change. "Yes, I'd do it again, despite the problems we've had," Phil told the Evening Press.

"Of course I'm disappointed with the numbers. Would you be surprised to hear I've spent ten grand? And I'm not going to get that back. But York needs something. I wanted to change people's perceptions of what a dance event is with Sunday Secrets.

"The club scene is dying, and if I can see smiles on the faces of these people and see they've enjoyed themselves then it's all been worth while.

"This has been my life for the last six months, and the two years before that. And this is what I want to do. Most promoters want to be DJs, but I'm a promoter who wants to be just that - a promoter."

"It's not really my sort of music - I grew up with the Jam," said Ryedale Stadium's general manager, Jill Heseltine, who was keeping a watchful eye on proceedings.

"But the day has gone OK. We had an old couple who live on the boundary of the stadium come over and they said that although they had been worried beforehand, they couldn't really hear any noise."

"I've had a great time and I'd definitely come again. The music's really good, but they need more resources, if you know what I mean," said one York partygoer during DJ Sarah G's set.

Certainly the non-musical entertainment was scant, and the only amusements to be seen on the day were a burger truck, trailer bar and an electric buckaroo that looked as though it wouldn't be out of place on a League Of Gentlemen set.

But that didn't matter as most people seemed content to just dance or sit and soak up the atmosphere.

Surprisingly for an event of this sort, no flyers were handed out to promote upcoming gigs or dance events.

I suspect it's simply because there aren't any upcoming dance events to promote in York. It is thought that Sunday Secrets is York's first major dance event to be held since Galactica on Knavesmire in 1992.

Whether its peaceful passing denotes punter satisfaction or apathy remains to be seen.

Updated: 10:46 Monday, October 07, 2002